Under The Big Top

We ended up Spring Break with a trip to see the circus. Ringling Brothers was in town and had set up in our city's coliseum. The kids and I had been in previous years, and had a pretty positive experience, from an accessibility standpoint. Unfortunately, this year was a little different.

Parking was good. There was plenty of handicapped parking right across the street from the coliseum. Unfortunately, the curb cuts on either side of the street did not match up. We had to go from the corner of one street, walk through traffic, and then head to the other end of the block to find the other curb curt. Fortunately, there were police officers close by who helped us navigate the traffic.

We had great seats, and I do appreciate the coliseum staff making those seats available for us. Unfortunately, getting to the seats was quite a production, and whenever anyone needed to visit the restroom, the production continued. Plus, the only bathroom available for us was one men's restroom. Let me just say, I'm glad I'm not a boy. It was filthy and roach infested.

The staff on hand to help us were absolutely wonderful though. They are what made the experience a positive one, and had it not been for them, I'm not sure we would have stayed. But stay we did, and here's a sampling of what we saw:

When I Needed Help - Where Were You?

According to the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network, “an increasing number of fire department’s have been trying to include the deaf, hard of hearing and deaf/blind communities in their fire prevention and safety plans. Many have applied for 2010 Fire Prevention and Safety Grants through FEMA. This will ensure that accessible smoke alarms are distributed to those that need them.

Tragically, there continue to be fire fatalities involving these underserved populations. Accessible smoke alarms will curb this trend, but these devices are very costly when purchased individually and they are only part of the solution.

Education and training programs continue to be a highly effective way to provide fire prevention and safety information to these individuals, but few fire education professionals know how to provide a truly accessible program.”

My experience in trying to figure out what type of smoke alarm to buy for my son who is Deaf is a perfect example of that lack of knowledge.

Several months ago, I emailed the fire department for my county. I asked for guidance on smoke alarms for the Deaf. Months passed and I got no response.

By surfing the Internet, I realized that a smoke alarm for someone who is Deaf is drastically different than a traditional smoke alarm, but I was still confused as to what to purchase. I knew I needed something with a strobe light, and something that could also offer vibration, to a bed for example, would be ideal. But, there is no one device that can do that. It appeared I needed to buy at least two things to accomplish my goals. Since those two things were quite expensive, I wanted to make sure I was ordering correctly. Thus, my email to my fire department.

Fortunately, the father of one of Ronnie’s wheelchair basketball teammates is a fire captain in an adjoining county. He used his influence and his contacts to get my county fire department to finally contact me with the information I needed. But it shouldn’t have worked that way.

What if another family or another Deaf person didn't have the contacts that I had? How would they get the information and support they needed?

So, the Community Emergency Preparedness Information Network is correct – few fire education professionals know how to provide a truly accessible program, and at least in my county, the fire department was not even responsive to a disability issue.

Very disappointing….

What Do You Think?

Over the years I have been blogging, I've done many posts about accessibility and accommodations. My recent post about Joey's Hot Dogs was one of those. My idea is to expand those posts and reviews, perhaps even into their own blog.

With aging baby boomers and more premature babies surviving, disability is becoming an even more recognizable state of life. I don't know about the specific areas in which you live, but in my area, I don't feel disability and needed access and accommodations are given much attention. The intent of my new blog would be to bring some attention to those things.

I will plan on one post a week about a place - store, restaurant, museum, school, park, etc - that my family and I visit. Then I will give you my opinion of both the accessbility and reasonable accommodations of each place. The places might be local businesses in my area, state parks, other locations to which we may travel, or chain establishments like Target, WalMart, McDonalds, etc. And I will also plan on sharing my review with someone at the location we visit.

So, what do you think? Is this worth doing? Would such information be valuable to you and your family?